Do we ever need these values backwards? Like polarizability of cations / polarizing power of anions?

[samanthaywu]

Are there ever instances where we need the polarizing power of anions even though usually they are the ones being polarized? Or the polarizability of cations even though they are usually the ones polarizing anions?

[Emily Ding 1J]

I doubt it, but even if we did need to know, anions would just have really low polarizing power and vice versa right?

[Akshata Kapadne 2K]

I wouldn't worry about it. In fact, I don't even think anions are physically capable of having polarizing power since their negative charge greatly contributes to their distortion (and vice versa for cations). I could be wrong, though.

[David Chibukhchian 2G]

I believe that since cations usually have a lower electronegativity than anions, they don't exactly have extra valence electrons in the ionic bond for the anion to distort. This basically means there wouldn't really be much to polarize on a cation due to its lower electronegativity. In general, though, I don't think it's necessarily that important for us to know. As long as we're aware of the trend for anion polarizability and cation polarizing power, we should pretty much be good to go. I hope that helps!